Post-Holiday Blues: Readjusting to Work and Routine After a Break

Why do post-holiday blues, low motivation and back-to-work anxiety happen? Discover practical tips for easing back into your routine after a holiday.

You spent days waking up to the sea, eating without wondering what time it was, and having long conversations with the people you love. Then the suitcases were packed, the journey home began, and with the alarm on Monday morning a strange heaviness settled over you. Hundreds of messages in your inbox, hours lost in traffic and half-finished tasks on your desk seem to wipe out the ease of your holiday within a few hours. The sadness, reluctance and tension of post-holiday blues are an experience many people recognise. In this article we look at why post-holiday blues appear, what symptoms they bring, and what you can do to ease back into your routine more gently when you return to work or school.

What Are Post-Holiday Blues?

Post-holiday blues are a temporary emotional dip, a lack of motivation and a difficulty adjusting as you return from a holiday to everyday life. They are popularly called "holiday syndrome" or "post-holiday depression", but they are not a diagnosis. In most cases they are a context-dependent adjustment process that eases on its own within a few days to two weeks.

At the heart of this feeling lies the sharp shift between two different paces of life. On holiday, time is flexible, decisions are yours, responsibilities lessen and enjoyable activities increase. On your return, the hours are set again, responsibilities come back and your room for freedom narrows. The human mind can experience this contrast as a kind of loss.

Post-holiday blues do not mean your holiday went badly. Quite often the opposite is true: the more enjoyable and restful the holiday was, the more noticeable the difference can feel on your return. This can also be an important clue to what your everyday life does not offer you enough of.

What Are the Symptoms of Post-Holiday Blues?

The difficulty of readjusting after a holiday can look different from person to person. Common symptoms include the following.

Emotional symptoms

• Sadness, emptiness and a feeling of "I should have stayed on holiday"
• Reluctance and tension about going back to work or school
• Getting irritated easily, impatience
• Longing for the next holiday and being unable to enjoy the present

Physical symptoms

• Tiredness, fatigue and difficulty waking up in the morning
• A shifted sleep pattern, going to bed late and struggling to get up
• Headaches, muscle tension or stomach complaints
• Changes in appetite

Cognitive and behavioural symptoms

• Difficulty gathering your attention, being unable to focus on work
• Putting off even simple tasks
• Feeling less productive at work, and guilt because of it
• Looking at holiday photos again and again, thinking constantly about the holiday

These symptoms are usually intense in the first days and then gradually ease. A persistent or worsening picture, however, may call for a different kind of assessment.

Why Is Coming Back From Holiday So Hard?

Changes to your biological rhythm

On holiday, sleeping and waking times usually shift, mealtimes change and exposure to sunlight increases. Long journeys and different time zones can also affect your body clock. After you return, it takes time for this rhythm to settle back into its old pattern, and that is felt as tiredness and low motivation.

The gulf between holiday and everyday life

If your daily life involves heavy stress, long working hours and little rest, a holiday becomes a temporary escape from that load. The bigger the difference on your return, the harder the adjustment. This can in fact be a sign of how exhausting your daily life is.

A backlog of work

The emails, meetings and unfinished projects that pile up while you are away can turn your first day back into a period of intense pressure. The thought "I have to catch up on everything immediately" increases anxiety.

The gap between expectation and reality

The expectation of coming back "completely renewed" can lead to disappointment if you feel tired on your return. Holidays that are crowded, packed with activities or spent with children in particular can be more tiring than restful.

Job satisfaction and meaning

The reluctance you feel after a holiday is sometimes not merely a temporary adjustment issue but a sign of a deeper dissatisfaction with work. If every return from a holiday feels heavier than the last, this may be an opportunity to question what your job means to you.

What Is Distinctive About Coming Back From Holiday in Turkey

In Turkey, the return from holiday is often experienced collectively. Especially at the end of the long religious holidays and the summer season, hours of return traffic on the motorways and crowds at coach stations and airports can use up the ease you gained on holiday before you have even arrived home. Getting home late on Sunday evening and going to work on Monday morning is a common situation that makes readjustment harder.

When schools open in September, the return from holiday becomes two-layered for families. Parents try both to return to their own work and to set up their children's school routine. School shopping, school bus arrangements, timetables and the intense pace of teenagers preparing for the LGS or YKS (Turkey's national high-school and university entrance exams) can turn September into one of the most stressful periods of the year for many families.

Where the cost of living means a holiday has strained the budget, financial worries can be added to the sadness on your return. Some people experience a different kind of wistfulness from never having been able to go on holiday at all, or from watching everyone around them post holiday pictures. Holiday photos on social media can feed the sense that your own life is inadequate.

Practical Tips for Readjusting After a Holiday

The suggestions below can help you turn your return from holiday into a gentler transition.

Let's say you got home from a two-week summer holiday late on Sunday night and are at your desk at eight on Monday morning. There are hundreds of emails in your inbox, your manager has scheduled a meeting for the afternoon and you are still carrying the tiredness of the journey. It is not surprising that you feel reluctant and tense in this situation. Now imagine you returned from the same holiday on Saturday, spent Sunday resting at home, and set aside Monday morning simply to put your tasks in order. Even though the holiday is the same, the experience of coming back will be quite different. The suggestions below contain small but effective steps that can make that difference.

Before you return

• Leave a buffer day: If possible, be at home the day before you start work after a holiday. A day set aside for unpacking, shopping and resting reduces the load of Monday morning.
• Adjust your sleep schedule gradually: A few days before you return, slowly bring your bedtime and waking time closer to your work routine.
• Plan the journey home realistically: Avoiding the busiest traffic hours or breaking up the journey means you arrive home less tired.

In your first days back at work

• Plan the first day lightly: If possible, do not schedule important meetings or critical deadlines on your first day back. That day can be set aside for going through and prioritising emails.
• Make a priority list: Sorting the backlog into "urgent", "important" and "can wait" eases the pressure to get everything done at once.
• Give yourself time to readjust: It is entirely natural not to be as productive as before for the first few days. Instead of "I must get back to my old performance straight away", it is more realistic to say "I will find my rhythm within a few days".
• Take short breaks during the day: Instead of working for long periods without a break, short walks and stretching breaks help you regather your attention.

Carry the good things from your holiday into daily life

• What did you find helpful on holiday? Walking, nature, reading, long conversations with loved ones? Add a small version of one of these to your daily life.
• Make small "mini-holiday" plans for weekends: a park in your city you have never visited, a day trip to a nearby district, a museum visit.
• Bring holiday habits into your routine, such as eating your meals more slowly, taking an evening walk or spending one hour without your phone.

Think about the next step

Planning your next holiday or an enjoyable event in the near future can be a source of hope. But be careful that it does not turn the present into a complete "waiting room". The real aim is to make daily life itself liveable. For that, placing small moments of enjoyment in the working week, for example meeting a friend on a Wednesday evening or going to an event you like, stops you from spending the whole week waiting for the next holiday.

A holiday is not only a way of escaping everyday life; it is also an opportunity to remember what you need in it.

Children returning to school and routine

After long holidays, children go through a similar process of readjustment. Gradually moving bedtimes earlier about a week before school opens, slowly reducing screen time and doing school preparations together with your child make the transition easier. If your child is grumpy, tired or tearful in the first days back at school, this is often a natural part of the transition. Listening to their feelings and validating them by saying "I understand you're sad that the holiday is over" helps your child regulate their emotions.

When Should You Seek Professional Support?

Post-holiday blues usually ease within a few days to two weeks. However, it may be helpful to speak to a mental health professional in the following situations:

• If sadness, low motivation and tiredness last longer than two weeks and are gradually getting worse
• If changes in sleep and appetite have become marked, or you can no longer enjoy things you used to like
• If the thought of going to work causes intense anxiety, panic or physical complaints
• If every return from holiday feels heavier and you feel deep burnout toward your work
• If you experience hopelessness, worthlessness or thoughts that life is meaningless

These symptoms alone do not amount to a diagnosis, but they can be signs of conditions such as depression or burnout. For more information you can look at our articles on symptoms of depression and burnout syndrome. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call 112 (emergency services) without waiting; an assessment by a psychiatrist is also important to determine whether medication is needed.

How Are Difficulties Adjusting to Work and After Holidays Addressed in Therapy?

Although post-holiday difficulties often pass on their own, for some people this period is a time when a deeper exhaustion or dissatisfaction becomes visible. In therapy, we first assess together whether this difficulty is a temporary adjustment issue or part of a more lasting problem relating to work, relationships or your general way of life.

In Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), thoughts such as "Having to go back to work is ruining my life", "If I don't catch up on everything immediately, I'll be fired" or "I can only be happy when I'm on holiday" are noticed and reworked from more balanced perspectives. With behavioural activation, activities that bring enjoyment and meaning to daily life are increased in a planned way. We also work on stress management, time planning and boundary-setting skills.

A schema therapy perspective can help you understand where your expectations of yourself and your work come from. For example, someone who holds high standards and a belief that they do not deserve rest may feel excessive pressure to catch up on their return from holiday, and this can pave the way for burnout. Individual therapy can offer a supportive space for working on these patterns.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do post-holiday blues last?

For most people, the sadness and low motivation after a holiday ease within a few days; for some they can last up to two weeks. The symptoms lessen as your sleep pattern recovers and your daily routine settles back into place. For symptoms that last longer than two weeks and keep getting worse, it is helpful to speak to a specialist.

Is it normal not to want to go to work after a holiday?

Yes, feeling reluctant when moving from the free pace of a holiday to the structure of work is very common. However, if this reluctance becomes more pronounced with each return and you feel a deep sense of detachment from your job, this may be a sign of burnout and should be taken seriously.

Why do I feel tired after a holiday?

Changes in sleeping hours, long journeys, a different diet and busy holiday schedules all affect your body's rhythm. After you return, it takes time for this rhythm to settle back into its old pattern. Enough sleep, regular meals and a light schedule in the first days can speed up recovery.

Is it possible to prevent post-holiday blues?

It is not always possible to prevent them entirely, but their impact can be reduced. Leaving a buffer day before you return, adjusting your sleep pattern gradually, planning your first working day lightly and carrying the helpful habits of your holiday into daily life are all steps that ease the transition.

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• #work stress

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Eda Erkan Alapala

Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.

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